Want to automate campaign finance data gathering from the Federal Election Commission? The FEC’s OpenFEC API is flexible from a developer’s perspective and cumbersome from an analyst’s. tidyusafec is a data retrieval R package that anticipates the common desire to work with tidy campaign finance data.

If you were wondering where to start and feeling intimidated, you are not alone! This post outlines one possible path of many to get your feet wet: by replicating some of the work published here at Charts On Charts.